Author Larry Brown, who wrote about the often rough, gritty lives of rural Southerners, died Wednesday at his home, his publisher said. He was 53. Brown died of an apparent heart attack, North Carolina-based Algonquin Books announced.

The Chiron vaccine factory here has spawned a public frenzy a continent away, but in this city, whose most famous export was The Beatles, the plant blamed for the USA's flu vaccine shortage remains little known.